AVAILABLE NOW:
audet010 Tim Hodgkinson / Ken Hyder / Jason Kahn / Paul Khimasia Morgan Butchers Wood compact disc/ download
audet007 Blanca Regina/Steve Beresford/Richard Sanderson/Paul Khimasia Morgan The Phantom Sunrise cd
audet006 Daniel Spicer & Paul Khimasia Morgan SU:V22 cd-r / download

Monday 3 December 2012

audet001


audet001

eaves drop by Paul Khimasia Morgan

3" cd-r; edition of 30 only

a live performance recorded by Jason Kahn
at The Grey Area Gallery, Brighton UK, February 2012

The first in an ongoing series of live recordings made
at aural detritus concerts released in co-operation with
The Slightly Off Kilter Label.

price: £4 including P&P in UK; international enquiries to the following email:
PayPal to:  slightlyoffkilter@hotmail.co.uk

Saturday 1 December 2012

chimes, overtones, friction & resonance

Adam Bushell  -  photo by PKM

So then, sadly the final night of november's aural detritus concert series, and also our final concert of 2012.  Not to worry though; we're fixing to organise the third concert series, again at Phoenix Brighton, in the spring of 2013, and there may even be a special one-off event somewhere in Brighton in January, so watch this space, as they say.
More by accident than by design, tonight's performances all have strings in common and the first example of this concerns percussionist Adam Bushell, (tonight playing vibraphone), and cellist Bela Emerson.  In fact Bela doubles up her string quotient; beginning by playing a relaxed figure on four-string tenor guitar.  Adam Bushell remains fairly restrained for the majority of their set; as Bela switches to cello augmented by electronics, a coherent and beautiful interplay of sounds takes shape.  Adam's vibraphone playing reminded me of the sound of some of the Chicago post rock/jazz records from the last decade, although that scene's Chad Taylor played marimba as well, I believe...  A very precise, enjoyable start to the proceedings.

Bela Emerson  -  photo by PKM
By total contrast, violinist Angharad Davies played a beautiful acoustic solo in the ante-room at the back of the Gallery.  By playing more than one string simultaneously, Angharad produced an overtone-like effect, gradually bringing in harmonic information and at one point bringing her playing volume down to a very quiet level.  Angharad demonstrated a stunning grasp of technique and the intellectual potential of the instrument.  Just amazing.

Angharad Davies  -  photo by PKM

After some more of Daniel Spicer's poetry reading and an intermission, our third purveyor of string-based music, Sarah Hughes, began her solo performance on amplified zither.  Sarah approaches her instrument, (some brief background for the uninitiated here), in a similar way to some of our our previous guests, lets say for example, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, Patrick Farmer, Daniel Jones, (and incidentally, they happen to be friends and have performed together in various groupings and projects), in that she not only works with the characteristics of the instrument itself, but augments her zither with objects, actions and extended techniques.  This approach has found her interpreting modern composition scores recently, but as pure, open improvisation, her set tonight really soars.

Sarah Hughes  -  photo by PKM

Lastly, a man with one foot in the jazz world and the other in free improvisation; the great Dominic Lash, who, remarkably for a man so young, has attained an unbelievable command of double bass syntax and a reputation and popularity to match.  Tonight, Dom treated us to a display of virtuoso extended bass technique, utilising every inch of the instrument.  His imagination and technique know no bounds and he sustained his impressive and captivating solo for thirty or so minutes.
It was great to finish with such fantastic and unique players; not quite sure how we'll be able to follow it next year!
Big thanks again to everyone who attended, particularly those who took advantage of the three-night passes; to all the performers who made long, and in some cases, arduous (!) journeys down to the seaside; to all the staff and volunteers at Phoenix Brighton, particularly Belinda Greenhalgh and Clare Hankinson; to our sound engineer Simon Drinkwater, and the production team - Daniel Spicer, Holly Jarvis, Adam Lygo and Daniel Jones - your hard work is much appreciated!

Dominic Lash  -  photo by PKM

Thursday 22 November 2012

illuminations, glossolalia, static & cascades


Paul Khimasia Morgan - photo by Andrea Shamlou

Concert two; this is the halfway point, and already something's different.  The action takes place in the Phoenix' main Gallery this evening, giving everyone, performers and audience, a bit more elbow room and offering a more polished presentation.  After a quick introduction, and his first poem of the evening (a version of Spood I think, from his album engruntled), Daniel Spicer urged the audience up off their seats and into an ante-room at the back of the Gallery to watch me, Paul Khimasia Morgan.  I feel a bit strange attempting to review my own performance, (partly because I don't remember much about it), so all I'll say is this: shortwave radio, mobile phone recordings and amplified bicycle lights in pitch darkness. 



Iris Garrelfs - photo by Andrea Shamlou

Next up was London-based sound artist Iris Garrelfs who produced an impressive set of real-time vocal manipulation/improvisation from behind her laptop.  Dense backgrounds were set up, occasionally producing a very effective sub bass effect, over which Iris spun a wordless filigree. Such was the power of her bass soundforms, a large bough fell from an elm outside, visible through the Gallery's plate glass windows during Iris' set*.  The resulting sonic landscape moved interestingly in and out of vaguely esoteric territory (at least to my mind) which I enjoyed; but the thing that stays with me is the extremely high quality signal Garrelfs produces which allows the nuances of her manipulations of her trained voice to hit their marks, without an audible residue of whatever software she was using to do the processing.


Daniel Spicer - photo by PKM

More poetry from Daniel Spicer, before an intermission, and then the Oxford/Bristol based Stephen Cornford and London based Greek owner of the label Organised Music From Thessaloniki; Kostis Kilymis.


Stephen Cornford and Kostis Kilymis - photo by Katy Connor

Quite a surprisingly full and full-on sound from these two young improvisors tonight; both men armed with a table full of wires, devices, objects, bits of metal, boxes and who knows what.  Pulsing electronics, droning hums, skittering noise-shards all produced with gusto and at volume; a far cry from the sometimes delicate and sedate world of lower-case improv.  Kilymis has worked with a who's who of  international avant names both solo and through his label, while Cornford participated in the Soundfjord residency at  V22 / The Biscuit Factory in South London this summer with Patrick Farmer and Lee Patterson.  Their pedigree shows.  Marvellous stuff.

Noteherder & McCloud - photo by PKM

Rounding up the evening were the rather dapper saxophone and electronics duo Noteherder & McCloud; also known as Chris Parfitt and Geoff Reader.  Having selected from a choice of two horns tonight, Parfitt set about utilizing the acoustic properties of the space in tandem with his usual habit of feeding a signal to Reader's electronics set up.  Reader himself prefaced their set with a brief apology regarding one of his keyboards which had appeared to have reverted to its factory presets, but to me, this was to their advantage, making them (consciously or unconsciously) seem to work harder.  This improvisation was one of the best ones I've seen them do, Parfitt's processed sax reminding me of  Nik Turner at times (in no way a bad thing) and with Geoff Reader providing plenty of momentum with his churning synths and distorted vocalising.  Two new releases from these guys; one on Exotic Pylon and the other from The Slightly Off Kilter Label coming very soon - I'd advise you very strongly to seek them both out, judging by the calibre of work the boys demonstrated tonight.

Big thanks to the staff of Phoenix Brighton, and the adcs team: Simon Drinkwater, Holly Jarvis, Adam Lygo and Daniel Jones.

Final show next Friday 30th November with:
Angharad Davies, Dominic Lash, Sarah Hughes and Adam Bushell/Wil Miles/Bela Emerson trio
interludes from Daniel Spicer

* note:  it was quite windy last night.

Saturday 17 November 2012

hums, blasts, tics & scraping

Patrick Farmer/David Lacey/Daniel Jones  -  photo by PKM

Very pleased with the excellent music on offer last night at our first show of november at Phoenix Brighton.
MASS, a duo of dark clad gentlemen, started the evening off with a linear set of tone development interspersed with what appeared to be some kind of homemade breath operated instrument heavily time-processed I'm guessing.  Apart from that, I'm not sure exactly how their sounds were being produced, but an absorbing set with an esoteric undercurrent, perhaps.
Breath continued as a theme as the great bass saxophonist Tony Bevan followed with a highly technical, and physically demanding by the looks of it, solo display.  Bass sax is an unusual instrument in jazz and Mr Bevan is, to my ears, the top exponent in the UK if not everywhere.  He even demonstrated his technique (don't forget - a bass sax is a not inconsiderable-sized object) of playing with the mouthpiece full of water for a lucky few of us in the bar prior to doors opening.

Gus Garside & Dan Powell  [The Static Memories]  -  photo by PKM

The Static Memories (double bassist Gus Garside and electronics/guitar man Dan Powell) reprised their set at adcs in May with another extremely enjoyable performance rich in textural and gestural detail.  I really like the collision of a jazz career and experimental electronics of this duo.
After a short interval, we all decamped into the bar to witness the trio of Patrick Farmer, David Lacey and Daniel Jones and their tabletop devices.  Self-amplified by a means of a small speaker each, they first set some noises running for ten minutes, slowly increasing in quiet intensity, as the audience finished ordering drinks.  We all then seated ourselves and the trio commenced a score by Sam Sfirri.  This seemed to contain a good deal of "silent" passages which really focussed the audience, so much so that I felt I had to politely shoo some audible conversationalists out of the next room.  A further fifteen or so minutes of pure improvisation followed in more exuberant fashion to finish the evening to great appreciation.
I must also thank Daniel Spicer, he of jazz writings and his own Mystery Lesson radio programme, for his poems and announcements throughout the course of the evening.
Next Thursday; Iris Garrelfs, Stephen Cornford, Kostis Kilymis, Noteherder & McCloud and myself will be entertaining in the Phoenix main Gallery from 7:30pm.  All welcome...

Wednesday 5 September 2012

line-up for november 2012


Friday 16th November
Tony Bevan
Patrick Farmer/David Lacey/Daniel Jones
MASS
The Static Memories


Thursday 22nd November
Iris Garrelfs
Kostis Kilymis
Stephen Cornford
Paul Khimasia Morgan
Noteherder & McCloud


Friday 30th November
Angharad Davies
Sarah Hughes
Dominic Lash
Adam Bushell/Wil Miles/Bela Emerson


Tickets for the 16th November are available here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/188904
Or you can buy 3 day passes for the special price of £9 either from the door on the first night or in advance from Endless Records or Resident on Kensington Gardens, North Laine,  Brighton.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Thursday 31 May 2012

adcs snaps


Gus Garside [the other half of The Static Memories].
Slow Listener.
Adam Lygo.
Mystery Dick [Ed Pinsent & Harley Richardson].



adcs photos


Daniel Jones and Robert Curgenven.
Daniel Spicer.

(seated) Barry Witherden [half of Gimlet-Eyed Mariners] & DJ Stephen Drennan, (background) Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga & Michael Fairfax [half of Gimlet-Eyed Mariners].



adcs 2012 photos


Michael Fairfax [half of Gimlet-Eyed Mariners] and Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga.


A couple of Bolide.
Mr Daniel Jones.

Saturday 5 May 2012

Gold Dust Promo Film

Take a peek at Joseph Young's Super 8 promo film for the new Gold Dust compilation on The Slightly Off Kilter Label:
https://vimeo.com/38031079

*****

sok042 Gold Dust compilation OUT NOW!



Friday 4 May 2012

Full Line-Up for adcs2012

Friday 4th May 2012


Gimlet-Eyed Mariners
Gimlet-Eyed Mariners hail from Somerset and were formed to create the kind of soundscapes its members enjoyed, but seldom heard. Although they arrived at it from different directions, the Mariners share a vision and a common admiration for musique concrete & electronic music pioneers like Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen. They are also inspired by the traditions of Improv (and Stockhausen’s “Intuitive Music”). They aim to bring together these two streams, which may at first glance seem incompatible, in a way few artists have done previously. Their music is totally improvised, concerned primarily with colour, texture, dynamics and the organic, unpredictable evolution of each performance. Each piece starts from scratch: the opening moments of an improvisation constitute the only negotiations that shape the performance. Michael Fairfax, a sculptor and designer, studied under his grandfather, Ernest Berk, a pioneer of musique concrete, and has created a number of sound-works using computer technology. Improvisation allows him space and expansiveness that is the antithesis of public art. He has recently been making his own homemade instruments. Barry Witherden, a freelance music journalist, began tinkering with low-tech, tape-based collages in his late teens. He has a particular interest in the more meditative sub-genres of Improv, which value space, resonance and texture.

Mark Wastell
London-based sound artist and composer Mark Wastell builds enormous atmospheres on the Tam Tam with very little actual movement. Wastell's music is dark, deep and beautiful. Slow movements build up sonic pulses that are able to take over rooms and buildings. He has collaborated with many people including Rhodri Davies, Bernard Gunter, Evan Parker, Mattin, Tony Conrad, Keith Rowe, Otomo Yoshihide, Derek Bailey, John Butcher, Toshimaru Nakamura, Joachim Nordwall, Lasse Maurhaug, Hugh Davies and John Zorn.

Paul Khimasia Morgan
For many years, Paul Khimasia Morgan has been developing his approach to improvised music and has worked on projects with Simon Whetham, Daniel Jones and Adam Lygo. He has releases on Con-V, Engraved Glass, Cronica and The Sound Projector. Paul also runs the imprint; The Slightly Off Kilter Label, which publishes artist-led short-run vinyl and cd-r editions. The newest batch of releases include work by Daniel Spicer, Bolide, Noteherder & McCloud and a compilation of recordings from Joseph Young’s exclusive 2011 headphone concerts entitled Gold Dust.. Paul Khimasia Morgan is the curator of aural detritus concert series.

Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones is an improvising musician based in Brighton, England. One third of the group Loris, (with Patrick Farmer and Sarah Hughes), and an ex-member of Tierce, (alongside Ivan Palacky and Jez riley French), he has had music released on the Another Timbre, Cathnor, Engraved Glass and Roeba labels.

Dimitra Chatzigoga-Lazaridou
Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (Greece) is a musician and a linguist currently based in London. Active in the field of experimental, electro-acoustic and improvised music, she started to play in Barcelona in 2006. She plays the zither, an old folk instrument, and remaps its territory, treating it as the interior of the piano and a resonance box, by making use of various objects detached from their typical usage. She performs solo, in long-term collaborations (with Ferran Fages as ap’strophe) or in occasional formations (with Lucio Capece, Angharad Davies, Axel Dörner, Franz Hautzinger, Robin Hayward, Chris Heenan, Grundik Kasyansky and Tisha Mukarji among others). She has participated in international festivals such as Pied Nu in Le Havre, TOT 1.0 in Athens and Personal and Collective in Ljubljana. She has two CDr releases, ‘paisatges’ with Felipe Araya-Muñoz (Kukuruku Recordings, 2009) and ‘der schlaue fuchs’ with Chris Heenan (More mars, 2011) and two CD releases with the duo ap’strophe, ‘objects sense objectes’ on Etude Records (2009) and ‘corgroc’ on Another Timbre (2010). Her first solo CD ‘stroke by stroke’ was released in 2011 by Organized Music from Thessaloniki. ‘Outwash’ with Tisha Mukarji (inside piano) and Angharad Davies (violin) is soon to be released on Another Timbre.

Friday 11th May 2012


Daniel Spicer
Daniel Spicer is a writer, broadcaster and improviser based in Brighton. He is a regular contributor to The Wire and Jazzwise magazines. He presents a weekly radio show, The Mystery Lesson, on Brighton's Radio Reverb 97.2FM, playing new releases in avant-garde improvised music. He is a member of the chaotic Brighton-based electro-acoustic improvising sextet, Bolide. Daniel also performs solo works of sound poetry, spoken word and improvisation. In 2012 he releases a second CD on The Slightly Off Kilter Label; a tape in the Voice Studies series curated by London-based publishing house and tape label My Dance The Skull; and a chapbook of new poetry on the Chocolate Monk label.

Bolide
White Lodge. Forthcoming release Permutations on The Slightly Off Kilter Label.

Joseph Young (The NeoFuturist Collective)
Joseph originally trained as an actor and performed in theatre and television for over 25 years. Since completing a research MA in 2005, he has developed a body of sound and performance work for galleries, the public realm, radio, film and the internet. Joseph’s work has been seen at Tate Modern, as part of the Futurist retrospective in 2009, where he co-authored and led a choir to shout at the paintings. In 2010, he was artist-in-residence at Blast Theory, in which he developed a solo installation project subsequently realised at a&e gallery in Brighton as The End of Listening. In 2011, he was the performance director of The Red Shoes for Secret Cinema in London. His sound installation, Base Sound :: Sonic Gold was commissioned as part of the HOUSE festival in May 2011 and featured a series of intimate headphone performances with invited artists, including Paul Khimasia Morgan. The resulting CD “Gold Dust” has just been released on The Slightly Off Kilter Label.
Joseph is currently Vice Chair of the AIR Council (Artists Interaction & Representation) and founder of The NeoFuturist Collective, an artists’ group dedicated to celebration of urban noise.
http://www.josephyoung.co.uk/ www.neofuturist.org twitter: @artofnoises

Robert Curgenven
Line/12K, Recorded Fields.

Simon Drinkwater
Simon Drinkwater is at the moment exploring polyphony. He uses voice as the sole sound source and relays it through both tape and digital delay; using the digital on a long slow decaying loop which picks up microtonal mumblings and forms them into undulating swathes of choral drone, reminiscent of Ligeti's Lux Aeterna. His improvisations incorporate shifting chord changes, feedback and rhythmic fragments of psycho-babble sound poetry. Simon also plays improvised music on the harp.

Paul Khimasia Morgan
See Friday 4th

Daniel Jones
See Friday 4th

Friday 25th May 2012


Mystery Dick [Ed Pinsent & Harley Richardson]
Mystery Dick are Ed Pinsent and Harley Richardson, two artists/musicians from London. The duo was formed in 1995 and plays very sporadically; there are almost no available releases. Ed Pinsent is a digital archivist by day, by night the editor of The Sound Projector, a magazine covering unusual and visionary music as well as other noise ignored by the mainstream press. Ed presents a weekly radio show on Resonance FM. Ed is also a cartoonist, creator of surreal, whimsical and avant garde comic strips. In the 80's Ed was a small press publisher, putting out many of his own titles as well as the influential Fast Fiction anthology.
Harley Richardson is a musician, writer, artist and a prolific doodler. He contributes reviews and illustrations to The Sound Projector and used to run the TSP website. In the late 1980s he edited Ugly Mug, an anthology of British underground comic strips. Having failed to ferret his way into The Fall, he plays musical improvisations with various impromptu gatherings of friends from Walthamstow and is a guest musician on several recordings by North London songsters The Original Beekeepers.

Adam Lygo
For this performance I am going to focus on the concept of contact and the effect of various vibrations influencing & mutating during the performance time. I will use no guitar, effects or loops instead various items of glass, metal & shell will be manipulated using three vibrating devices and in direct contact to a Zoom HR4 fed to the mixing desk.

The Static Memories
Dan Powell & Gus Garside have been working together on improv project The Static Memories for the last four years. Dan Powell (laptop/guitar/sampler/effects) began making sound for installation works in London in the mid 90's and was involved in live arts group OMSK. Since moving to Brighton in 2000 he has concentrated on experimental and improvised music. He is a member of Brighton based collective The Spirit of Gravity and has performed at spaces across the UK. Dan is currently also a member of free improv duo Nil with Chris Parfitt. Dan has released work on net labels Hippocamp & Wrong Lab and his work has been played on WFMU, Radio Reverb & BBC Radio 3. Gus Garside (double bass/electronics) has worked in a variety of musical settings – jazz, contemporary music, pop, cabaret, dance, theatre and, most importantly, improvised music where he has performed with many leading players. Gus formed arc in 1988 and their third album "the pursuit of happiness" was released on Emanem Records in 2009. He formed In Sand in 2004 and their first album “Whatever” came out mid 2008. Gus is part of the Brighton Safehouse collective.
“…where he differs from the average jazz bassist is in the range of sonorities he conjures from his instrument”” - Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD
http://www.http//soundcloud.com/dan-powell www.myspace.com/doublebassandelectronics

Slow Listener
“Slow Listener sounds like the burnt-out remnants of Ubik found in an old film canister. No I don’t know what that means either but I can’t think of any other way to describe something so bloody strange.”
-Jonny Mugwump Exotic Pylon

door price £4 or £9 three event pass available on the First Night.  Arrive 7.30 for prompt 8pm performances please.

Friday 16 March 2012

aural detritus concert series 2012


aural detritus concert series 2012:
A micro-festival featuring long duration live performances by special collaborative groups plus spoken word and soundart performances.
Artists include Mark Wastell [Oceans Of Silver And Blood, The Sealed Knot, the Confront label], Daniel Jones [Cathnor], Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga [MoreMars], Robert Curgenven [Line, Recorded Fields], Paul Khimasia Morgan [Cronica, Con-V, engraved glass], Ed Pinsent/Mystery Dick [Resonance 104FM, The Sound Projector], Gimlet Eyed Mariners [Michael Fairfax & Barry Witherden], Daniel Spicer [The Mystery Lesson, The Slightly Off Kilter Label], Bolide Awkwardstra [Chocolate Monk, White Lodge], Joseph Young aka Field [Neo-Futurist Collective, Gold Dust headphone concerts], Adam Lygo [Hive Music, Sloughnoize, Noise-Joy], Slow Listener [Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Tape Drift, Chocolate Monk] with more to be announced.
The Green Room Cafe, Phoenix Brighton; 4th, 11th & 25th May 2012. Doors 7:30pm for 8pm performances. Entrance per event £4. A special all 3 events pass £9 available direct from the Green Room Café during gallery opening hours.

Monday 6 February 2012

...and secondly a small part of the set by Phil Julian (Cheapmachines) and Daniel Jones:


Jason Kahn, Phil Julian/Daniel Jones footage

Many thanks to everyone who attended saturday's concert at the Grey Area Gallery and to Daniel, Huw, Jo and Daniel from the gallery.
We'll be posting a short film by Adam Lygo documenting the event here before too long, but in the meantime here's a couple of short videos I shot to give you a flavour of the excellent performances we witnessed.
Firstly a brief segment from midway through Jason Kahn's performance:



Monday 2 January 2012

Jason Kahn 4th February 2012

Jason Kahn was born in New York in 1960 and grew up in Los Angeles. He moved to Europe in 1990, first living in Berlin until 1999 then moving to Switzerland. He is currently based in Zürich.
Kahn came of musical age in the late 1970's, playing drums in punk bands and later making many records for the Los Angeles-based SST label. He turned more to improvised music in the late 1980's, culminating with his move to Berlin where he spent many years playing as a drummer and percussionist in different projects of improvised music, as well as being a member of American composer Arnold Dreyblatt's group “The Orchestra of Excited Strings.”
In Berlin Kahn began working with electronics and composing. He started releasing solo CD's in 1998 on his Cut imprint, which ran from 1997 until 2007. Kahn also began exhibiting sound installations in 2001 and has since shown numerous works in museums, galleries, art spaces and public sites around the world.
Kahn collaborates regularly with many musicians, both in improvised settings and in the context of graphical scores which Kahn composes for specific groupings of players.
This will be his first tour of the UK.
http://jasonkahn.net/

“There is no more protean improvisor in experimental music today than Jason Kahn.”
--The Wire

Following exhibitions of his sound/art work at SOMA Contemporary Gallery in Waterford, Ireland, Milton Keynes' MK Gallery and participating in the Gorey Arts and Film Festival, we are proud to welcome Phil Julian (aka Cheapmachines) to Brighton. Phil has recently released work on En'tracte, Void Seance and Obsolete Units.
http://cmx.org.uk/
Phil Julian will be performing in duo with Brighton's own Daniel Jones who is a member of Loris, (another timbre) and has a solo release of his improvisations "When On And Off Collide"available on Cathnor.
Support from Paul Khimasia Morgan (con-V, engraved glass).

Saturday 4th February 2012 at The Grey Area Gallery, off Queens Road, Brighton UK
prompt 7pm start. £tbc